I have alway loved the Star Wars 12" line and was saddened when I found out that Hasbro was doing away with it. Then Sideshow announced that they would be picking up the line and I was excited again. The one problem I now have is that they will be even more expensive.

Sideshow intends to lend some added distinction to the line by giving each figure a 30-point articulated body, hand-sculpted portrait features, well-tailored outfits, and detailed accessories. "Some of these characters will have real leather belts and holsters, metal buckles, little pouches that you can store little bits of Jedi equipment in, and all kinds of crazy details!"

Because of the figures' high-end treatment, fans can expect to pay a bit more for the Sideshow editions. The new 12" figures should cost around $40 - $55, with the possibility of deluxe figures in the future costing slightly more.

Honestly, I think that price is going to push me out of the 12" line. I have sacrificed getting the 3" figures many times to get the 12"ones, but now I don't see how I could afford to get them anymore. That price is double what I pay now. I will have to resort to getting a figure for Christmas and birthdays, and that makes me feel like a little kid again with no money! Companys don't think about their traditional fan base any more and how our lifestyles and income usage has changed due to families.

It depends on the figures to be honest. Which figures are we talking about here. I am willing to spend more if the quality is more. I think they could have a market. If you look at higher end marketing like the McFarland Toys for instance there is a serious market in higher end more detailed marketing. For interesting details and more realistic features I could save my pathetic salary for interesting figures. I wouldn't buy them in bulk that is for sure but I would consider a really awesome figure over a piece of crap figure like Hasbro has come out with.

My biggest complaint about the toys, especially the 12" figures are that the bigger the franchise the worse the toys. The TPMs were neat with lots of interesting different kinds and accessories. Then AOTC had some ok ones but most really were terrible considering. I know people that started going into making their own accessories for the 12" figures. I know call me a bit strange but if you offered neat accessories I would be way tempted.

Look at the quality of the sabers. The Mace Windu one way rocks! It is about 5 times as heavy as the Vader one they came out with for this movie. Cost less at the time and my stand was included. You have to pay $30 now for the plastic stand which is a piece of crap, I'm sorry, it is a piece of plastic for $30. Quality of the Obi Wan toys went way down. It doesn't even look like him now. At least in TPM it mostly looks like him and they used chips with phrases from the movie. One of the $30+ figures I paid for (original price was on the mint box I kid you not) had some weird english guy's voice imitating Ewan McGregor in a really scary bad way. Sadly, I thought my original figure was broken so I bought two of these at an ebay price and spent almost $100 on these "talking" figures form AOTC which were horrible. I refused to buy anything else after that fiasco.

I bought very little from the last movie. I think I maybe spent $100 total. I won't even tell you how much I spent on TPM stuff from ebay and elsewhere. I think it is well worth it for quality. I know I don't have a ton of disposable income and would have less if I had a family like you but it would be worth it.

I know this is an old topic, but for some reason I can't find the topic I was writing on. The Sideshow collection of collectibles is nice but in my opinion is not any better than the 12" figures that was out for TPM. It is better than the ones out currently but the quality has gone downhill a lot. However, I am not sure that they are worth the price. If you love 12" figures I say you will like them. However, I will not be investing in a lot of them. Only ones I have to have to complete my collection. I have a lot from TPM and don't need that many.

When Hasbro stopped making the 12" figures, they pushed me completely out of the market. With the $49.99 average price of a 12" figure from Sideshow, I can no longer warrant spending the money.

With family and bugeting constraints that I didn't have when I was single, I have to really pick and choose items. I had moved away from the 3" figures because of the volume they were putting out and I could no longer complete a collection. That is why I worked hard on getting all 12" figures. At least they didn't come out as fast.

I was hoping with Sideshow that due to the "quality" of their figures, that they might release them quarterly which I might be able to handle. They are even on the bandwagon of releasing several in a close timeframe which causes me to not to be able to get any.

I can understand that. They are good collectibles but I was hoping for higher quality clothing and leather not plastic accessories. Mace Windu did not even have 2 different colored sabers. To be sure it was a mistake the film maker fixed but to be completely accurate one would have to give him blue and purple to make the figure and collectible complete.

Here is also one small point, the figure had hazel eyes. Sam Jackson's eyes are pretty dark brown. Not that it matters but they are kind of creepy. I don't know why this small detail bothers me but I find the lighter colored eyes a little disturbing. I'm sure most people wouldn't even notice but it looks strange to me. For my almost $60 I was hoping for a bit more.

I also completely agree with you on the overpriced toy market. I was able to pick up quite a few toys when they came out this time but they were not that good and because of pricing I really limited what I wanted and made a list of quality. There were a couple of places online that evaluated the toys before they came out and gave in depth analysis.

As for resale value I see a lot going for cheap on ebay so I am not sure that the resale of these items is what the older, higher quality yet still affordable pieces were.